ProTools File Allocation

[TheLastElement]

Issue w/ saving... [ProTools M 7.1.1, MacBook, Lacie FireWire HD]

Firstly, I store all my projects, and files associated with them, in a designated folder on an external FireWire HD... not a problem. However, every so often, I'll be browsing the 1st level of my Mac's internal and I see folders named w/ names that I am using or have used for my projects. If I open these folders, they usually contain several files seperated into Audio/Fades folders.

Why would ProTools save most of the project where I want it to, and some of the project elsewhere? If I try to delete these files from the internal, the project won't open properly because they are missing. And if I relink the files to the Audio/Fades folders on my external, it usually tries to replace files [that for some reason have the same name]. They're not the same file though... they both need to be present for the project to have all the files it needs.

I don't really understand all that "behind the scenes" jazz that my computer is doing for me. Any advice on this subject would be great!

Something else I just thought of... kind of along the same lines...
Let's say I open a new session and I start my new song off with a sample.
That sample is stored in the afformentioned Audio folder on my HD, right?... So then let's say I add a bunch of other stuff- drums, bass, etc. Then I decide that the sample I used no longer belongs in this particular song so I delete it, and the track it's on... How come it doesn't get removed from that Audio folder? And if I manually try to remove it, ProTools refuses to save the session because it's not there. And if I close the session and then remove the file... guess what?! Yep, ProTools is trying to find that sample when I open the session up again!

Please tell me there's a way around these issues... I like to be very organized with my work and this is so frustrating!

 

[Reyne]

Hey dude i know exactly what your doing wrong. This is a trap that can cause major fuk ups. If your using an external drive to save your sessions to whenever you open a session you need to check your 'disk allocation' which ull find in 'options' or 'setup'. In the disk allocation window you can specify where protools will save any audio files you create. you need to make sure you have selected the right audio files folder for that session on your external harddrive.
Hope this makes sense.
Peace

 

[TheLastElement]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks a lot Host! But do I have to specify the session folder each time I load the song?

 

[TheLastElement]

Ha! TLE 1, ProTools 0!

I figured it out! Actually a while ago, but I've been offline for some time now. So, turns out, there's an option in ProTools Preferences for an Auto-backup function... You can specify the length of interval for backups and you can also turn it off completely. I've turned mine off and I'm pretty sure my problem has not happened again since. Thanks Host for your input.

 

[Hypnotist]

Also you have to make sure "use round robin" isn't checked off when you're in your session. What this does is uses several different drives to save room for your session, and it's okay to use if you're recording for a long long time at a high sample rate and bit depth.

But if you're doing a regular 44.1kHz session at 16 or 24 bit you should be fine in the same drive. Most full song sessions don't exceed 1-2 GB max with all audio files, unless you're using 24 tracks with complete full live instrumentation.

If you're really worried about it, the safest way to make sure all your files stay in the same spot is to Save Session Copy, along with all audio files, and it will put them all in one folder for you. I usually do this when I'm working for clients and backing up to CD/DVD/Firewire and they have to take a complete session home. And if they're happy with the final, I keep the master in house, and give them one with consolidated regions, saving even more space. When doing this, I usually just select all tracks that are active in the session, hit command-shift-3 (ctrl-shift-3 on pc) and it turns all my tracks into complete audio files. THEN, save session copy in... and make sure "audio files" and "fade files" is checked off.